SALEM -- Advocates of gay marriage saw the possibility of a quick legal win on the horizon Thursday after Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced she would not defend Oregon's ban on gay marriage in federal court.

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum appears in the State Capitol press room to announce her decision not to defend the state's ban on gay marriage in federal court.Harry Esteve/The Oregonian

In particular, Rosenblum's
decision led backers of a gay marriage ballot measure campaign to contemplate
the prospect of being able to drop their initiative.

Officials of Oregon United
for Marriage said they would not submit signatures to qualify their initiative
for the November ballot until seeing how U.S. District Judge Michael McShane
rules.

"If
we get marriage (from the federal court) in the spring and nobody appeals and
marriage licenses are being issued, nobody has any hunger for a ballot measure
we don't need," said Mike Marshall, campaign manager for Oregon United.

With
both the plaintiffs -- four gay and
lesbian couples seeking the right to marry -- and the state agreeing that the
ban is unconstitutional, it is possible there would be no one with the legal
standing to appeal if McShane strikes down the state's ban.

That left opponents fuming and saying that Rosenblum was failing to do her job.

The Oregon Family Council, which has been active in opposing the initiative, charged that Rosenblum "has ignored her duty to defend the Oregon Constitution and the will of the majority of Oregonians that approved Measure 36 in 2004."

Jack Louman, executive director of the council, said in a statement that the governor or attorney general needs to appoint someone with the legal standing "before the court to represent natural marriage on behalf of the state."

Louman added that it was "an outright attack on democracy" for an amendment approved by voters "to have no defense in federal court."

Asked how she would describe this decision not to defend a voter-approved constitutional amendment, Rosenblum said: "We say that the United States
Constitution has been violated in our opinion by this state constitutional
provision."

Rosenblum, a Democrat, joins
at least five other attorneys general -- in California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nevada
and Virginia -- who have refused to defend prohibitions against gay marriage.

"It is now clear that there
is no rational basis for Oregon to refuse to honor the commitments made by
same-sex couples in the same way it honors the commitments of opposite-sex
couples," Rosenblum said in a Capitol press conference.

"Marriage is the way that
loving couples become family to each other and to their extended families," she
added, "and there is no good reason to exclude same-sex couples from marriage
in Oregon, or from having their marriages recognized here."

Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is
listed as a defendant in the case, "agrees with the course outlined by the
attorney general," spokeswoman Rachel Wray said.

Supporters of the legal
challenge welcomed Rosenblum's decision.

"It's heartening that our
governor and attorney general are not going to rehash arguments" that haven't
worked in other states where federal judges have struck down gay marriage bans,
said Portland lawyer Lake Perriguey.

He
is representing two same-sex couples who filed the first legal challenge in
federal court in the fall. That case has
been consolidated in McShane's court with another legal challenge filed by two
other couples with the backing of Basic Rights Oregon, the state's major gay rights
group.

"We are optimistic about this
court case and confident that one way or another, (same-sex) marriage is coming
to Oregon in 2014," added David Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU worked on the lawsuit backed by Basic Rights.

McShane will hold oral
arguments on the case in Eugene on April 23 and has broad discretion on when he might issue a ruling.

Evan Wolfson, a longtime
advocate for same-sex marriage who heads New York-based Freedom to Marry, noted
that Rosenblum's decision follows a growing string of legal rulings striking
down prohibitions on gay marriage.

"The attorney general is in
good company in refusing to waste taxpayer dollars on defending indefensible
discrimination," he said.

In recent months, federal
judges in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia have struck down gay-marriage bans. Federal judges in Kentucky and Ohio have
issued narrower rulings that could also eventually lead to same-sex marriage in
those states.

Altogether, said Wolfson,
there are now at least 47 federal lawsuits proceeding in 25 states. He said
the issue could be headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as 2015.

Marshall, who heads the gay
marriage initiative campaign, said his group has now gathered 160,000
signatures. He said he's confident that
this will produce the 116,284 valid signatures of registered voters needed to qualify
for the ballot. The deadline for turning
the signatures in is July 3.